Just a Matter of Time
by drwritermom
Summary: Billowing black robes fall from the Astronomy tower. Is this the end of Harry's heart's desire? Time will tell. REPOST, corrected tags


Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend  
Somewhere along in the bitterness  
And I would have stayed up with you all night  
If I knew how to save a life

How to Save a Life, The Fray, 2005

* * *

In the fading red-orange light of day, Harry could barely make out the flurry of black that plummeted from the Astronomy tower observatory, to the hard, frozen earth below.

His heart leapt into his throat, and he began violently trembling. An impossible Apparation later, he collapsed, miraculously unsplinched, at the broken form of Severus Snape. Blood trickled from the corner of Severus' mouth and, as he gazed at Potter, he gasped, "Look at me." A flood of images, emotions, and thoughts invaded Harry's mind, racing at dizzying speed. A glimpse of Harry on his broom, with the devastated thought of "he'd never love a bitter, used-up spy, such as I" was the last thought/image/emotion Snape projected, as he took his last rasping breath.

Harry sobbed. The man he loved lay crumpled on the ground, believing he, Harry, could not love him. Had he arrived ten minutes earlier, maybe, he might have prevented this. Ten effing minutes! They both saved the world from a madman, and the world couldn't spare them ten effing minutes in return!

Harry lay sobbing, crumpled by the side of his heart's master, when a flash of twinkling eyes in his own mind's eye suggested, "It's only a matter of time, Harry."

Harry shot up with a start. "A Time Turner. Holy crap, Hermione has a Time Turner! I've got to get it from her," Harry mumbled, as he rose and raced from the top of the tower to the Great Hall. "Thank Merlin for meddling flamboyant dead headmasters!"

He sprinted to the head table, paying no mind to the confused expressions of the handful of professors and students who had stayed at Hogwarts during the winter holidays. Grabbing Hermione Weasley's sleeve, he fervently whispered, "I need your Time Turner, now; Snape's life depends on it, no questions, please." One look at Harry's face convinced Hermione: she slipped it to him while tersely whispering, "Do not be seen."

Rushing out of the Great Hall, he once again Apparated to the Astronomy tower and frantically raced up the stairs, taking them two by two. Setting the Time Turner back thirty minutes, he waited. Ten minutes later, a thoroughly defeated-appearing Severus Snape slunk onto the tower's pinnacle. Harry, concealed by his Invisibility Cloak, observed the man as he stepped near the edge of the observatory, shivering in the cold and looking totally dejected.

Harry cast a warming charm on Snape as he threw off his own cloak and placed it around Snape's shoulders. Startled by the unexpected appearance of the Man Who Defeated the Dark Lord, he couldn't summon the energy to snarl at Harry.

"Potter, why are you here?" he grumbled. "Isn't there a damsel in distress you ought to be saving?"

Harry's words left him in a rush. He was on the verge of full-fledged sobbing as he spoke.

"I am here for you, Severus. I ought to be saving you! I came back for you, before you do something that will destroy us both. You can't do this, sir!"

It was the lethargy of total despair that prevented Severus Snape from verbally eviscerating Harry. Totally distraught, he whispered, "What could you possibly know of my business here?"

Harry resumed trembling in earnest. "I found you lying at the foot of the tower! I saw you fall from the observatory, and I found you, dying!" Harry was sobbing, the image of his broken hero burned into his mind.

"Why does this torture you so, Potter? I am nothing to you. I am a Death Eater turned spy, who has outlived his usefulness. What purpose do I have? Please, Potter, let me go-"

"You are EVERYTHING to me! Without your sacrifices, without your courage, Voldemort would still be terrorizing Britain, and I would be dead! How can you not see that? Your death would ruin me!"

"Harry, please, just let me go-"

"If you go, I'm going with you!" Harry shouted. "I mean it! You are everything to me, I can't live without you. I love you," Harry sobbed.

Stunned silence was all Severus could muster.

For the next several minutes, all that could be heard was Harry's whimpering and Snape's harsh breathing.

The silence was broken with a soft whisper. "Do you truly care for me, Harry?"

"Yes, of course I do! I fell for you in between the pages of your Advanced Potions book, but since the war's end, I've grown to love you completely! I know of your snarkiness, your pain, your loyalty and your intense bravery. You are a good man, Severus Snape, and I can't fathom living without you."

"You truly care for me? An old, washed-out spy who has outlived his usefulness, and an ex-Death Eater?"

Harry took the hand of his Prince and pressed it lightly to his lips. "Absolutely!"

Looping the Time Turner around them both, Harry sent them back to the Great Hall, just after Harry originally left. Harry reclaimed his Invisibility Cloak before, hand in hand, they approached Hermione. They stopped and stood before her.

"Mission accomplished, I see," she stated, with a huge Cheshire-cat grin.

"So, Severus, you finally got your man," Flitwick chirped as he winked at Harry.

Severus sputtered, blushed furiously, and resolutely stared right past the gathered professors.

"It's about time, Severus!" McGonagall interjected. "Seeing you two pine after each other in the teachers' lounge was amusing at first, but you were getting morose there, dear. Do take good care of him, Harry!"

"With my life, Minerva. He's saved me so many times, it's time to return the favor," Harry promised.

With a heartfelt look of love and gratitude, Severus Snape held Harry's gaze, until twin rumbling stomachs ended their reverie.

"Time to eat, I think," Severus proclaimed, as the two professors sat and ate, nourishing their bodies, as the knowledge of the lives they had saved nourished their souls.

Much talking and, for Severus Snape, sessions with a mind healer followed. Many such sessions were needed, to heal the years of torture at Voldemort's, and to a lesser extent, Dumbledore's hands.

Harry and Severus took a long time building an emotional relationship before they became bonded husbands. Harry became a medical/pediatric Healer, enabling him to treat patients from infants to elderly, and partnered with Madame Pomfrey at Hogwarts. Severus continued as the revered Hogwarts headmaster.

Epilogue : Thirteen Years Later

"Father," eleven-year-old Melody Leigh Potter-Snape whinged as she lugged her school trunk out the door of the Potter-Snape family quarters, next to the Gryffindor common room. "Why do we have to Floo from the common room to the Leaky Cauldron, to take the Hogwarts Express back to Hogwarts, when we already live here?"

"Because, my future Ravenclaw, you need to meet your fellow students on the train, it is a rite of passage for all Hogwarts students," Severus Potter-Snape replied, while escorting a very pregnant Harry out of the same door his daughter had just exited.

"Mel, honey, I think I am going to have to catch up with you later, in the Infirmary, after the welcoming feast," Harry stated, taking a deep cleansing breath as he cradled his baby bulge.

"Was that a contraction just now, Harry?"

"Yes, Sev, they are coming every ten minutes; you have time to see our little Melly Belly off to the train, just come to the Infirmary when you return."

"Daaaad, you know I hate that nickname."

Melody stopped mid-rant, a thoughtful expression etched on her face, having just processed that word her father had said: contraction.

"Wait, you said contraction, Daddy. Don't you have contractions when the baby is coming?"

Yes, my dear Melly Jelly Belly," Harry chuckled, "it seems that little Liam wants to arrive the same day you start your schooling here."

"I am going to give Liam an annoying nickname that will make you regret calling me Melly Belly," Melody whinged as she and the Hogwarts headmaster headed towards the common room to Floo to Melody's next great adventure.

A number of hours later, in the infirmary, Harry and Severus were cooing over their new baby boy, Liam Lawrence, while their daughter Melody was cradling her infant sister, Kathleen Molly.

"Twins, Papa and Daddy, why didn't you tell me?"

"We did not want anyone to ignore our precious firstborn child in the chaos that surrounds the news of a twin pregnancy," Severus answered. "You got the news first, after Madame Poppy and your parents. You get to choose whom you tell."

"I have nicknames for them already. Neon Liam, because he has red hair, and Chatty Kathy, because she is only two hours old, but she keeps making baby sounds. And they are not as embarrassing as Melly Belly," she exclaimed with a haughty humph.

Severus took in his family: his beloved husband, Harry, and their three miracles (the first spontaneous male pregnancies since Merlin's time), and felt truly blessed and oh so humbled. "Thank you for coming back for me, my Harry," Severus whispered.

"Thank Albus, my Sev. He gave me the time to save you from yourself."

From his vantage point, Dumbledore basked in the knowledge that he had repaid his debts to the sons of his heart. All was finally well.


End file.
